Would You Quit Your Job for $5K?

This is what Amazon asked its warehouse employees last year. Even new employees could receive $2K to leave the company.

The "Pay to Quit" program was offered to 40K of Amazon's warehouse employees across the nation from its nearly 100 locations.

Fewer than 10% of the employees took the offer.

Are They Crazy?

Some might think that Amazon's CEO, Jeff Bezos, was a bit odd for making this offer, but he wants employees at his company who want to be there. Even if it were 400 employees who took the offer, and it were to cost the company several million dollars to do so, Bezos feels that the benefit far exceeded the cost of doing so.

Why It Works

It works in many ways, because it gets the disgruntled employee out of the company so that people who are happy are not influenced by the negativity. When they accept this small severance, it saves the company on unemployment insurance costs. The benefit is far-reaching on many levels, and it opens up more opportunity for new workers.

Some employees will take the money without thinking twice. They may think short-term and want instant-gratification. They might leave for a couple of thousand of dollars. However, using dollar signs to drive a way of thinking may cloud one's judgment. It is important to step back momentarily to think about the long-term effect of the decision.

Is It a Good Idea to Leave?

There are times that jobs simply are not a good fit. This severance pay would be the equivalent of one to three months of income, which might give someone just enough breathing room to find something or somewhere more suitable.

But even at a fair low wage of $12 per hour, would it be worth leaving? One of the benefits of working at Amazon is stock option.

How many of us outside of the Amazon company would take-the-money-and-run? How many would stay with the company? I would be inclined to stick with it.